1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the field of computer networking, and more particularly to a method of reducing network congestion by using Internet Control Message Control (ICMP) Source Quench information to update routing protocols dynamically.
2. Description of the Related Art
Routing packets from a source computer to a destination computer forms the bedrock of the Internet. At the Internet Protocol (IP) layer, routing is the critical mechanism through which data is sent. At any point in the path, routers pick the next router or destination to which for the packet, based on an entry in the routers routing table. Routing is truly a distributed protocol
However, with the exploding growth of the Internet, the bandwidth available has not been able to keep up with rising number of users and it is quite possible to encounter congestion. When the resources of a router or destination computer are being stretched by buffer overflow, bandwidth limitations, and the like, to router or destination computer needs a mechanism to inform others about its condition.
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is used to communicate control information for the Internet at the network layer. If a router or destination computer experiences congestion, it can send an ICMP Source Quench message to the source computer, asking the source computer to slow down. The source computer can use this information to reduce its data rate. However, when the congestion is at the router rather than the destination computer, the destination computer may be well able to handle the original data rate.